Lay Down My Sword and Shield by James Lee Burke (1971)
This is the first of thirteen novels (thus far) about the Holland family.
Hackberry Holland is a Korean War veteran and an alcoholic whose life is spiraling out of control. A lawyer and a member of a prominent Texas family, he has been persuade to run for the House of Representatives from Texas in an election he is sure to win, his father having held that seat earlier. As a lawyer, he is brilliant; his skills have won him many rich, powerful, and influential clients, although he leaves most of the work of his firm to his older brother. As a husband, he is a failure, having married a beautiful society girl who places prestige and position over all else. As a person, he is haunted by his time in Korea, where he served briefly as a medic before being captured and place in a Chinese prisoner of war camp. What was done to him there, and what he had to do to survive, has scarred him. He returned as a hero, but Hack knows that what he had to do was anything but heroic. He lives on the family ranch once owned by his grandfather and namesake, Hackberry Holland, a tough Texas lawman most noted for defeating and jailing gunslinger John Wesley Hardin.
Hack's life is fueled by alcohol, blackouts, fast cars, cheap Mexican whores, and regret. He knows he is being used by political forces. He dislike the people he has to contend with and curry up to in order to advance his political career. He loves his brother but hates that his brother is more concerned about financial and political success than anything else. He doesn't hate his wife, but he regrets having married her; she, in turn, despises him for his weaknesses and his occasionally refusing to play the political game. And then there's his experiences as a prisoner of war, where his captors reigned over him and his fellow prisoners with cruelty, hatred, and violence, thinking nothing of randomly slaughtering some of his fellow prisoners.
"I stared through my eyes at the wall. The lines in the room looked warped, glittering with moisture,, and the old stove burned brightly red in one corner of my vision. Deng nodded to the sergeant, an indifferent and casual movement of maybe an inch, and Kwong brought my head down with both hands into his knee and smashed my nose. the blood burst across my face, my head exploded with light, and I was sure the bone had been knocked back into my brain. I was bent double in the chair, the blood pouring out through my hands, and each time I tied to clear my throat I gagged on a clot of phlegm and started the dry heaves"
At one point, Hack and some of his fellow prisoners were ordered to dig their own graves ("Deep. no smell later.:"):
" 'Who first?'
" 'Do it, you goddamn bastard" O. J. shouted. then his eyes watered and he stared at this feet,
" 'You first, then, cocksuck.' Kwong raised the burpgun to his shoulder and aimed at O. J.'s face, his eyes bright over the barrel, a spot of saliva in the corner of his mouth. He waited seconds while O. J.'s breath trembled in his throat, and suddenly he swung the gun on his strap and began firing from the waist into the Turk. the first burst caught him in the stomach and chest, and he was knocked backward by the impact into the grave, with his arms and legs outspread. The quilted padding in his coat exploded with holes, and one bullet struck him on the chin and blew out the back of his head. His black eyes were dead and frozen with surprise before he hit the ground, and a piece of broken tooth stuck to his lower lip. Kwong stepped to the edge of the grave and emptied his gun, blowing the face and groin apart while the brass shells ejected into the snow. When the chamber locked open he pulled the pan off, inserting a fresh one in its place, and slid back the loading lever with his thumb. The other two guards began to kick snow and dirt from the edge of the grave on top of the Turk's body.
" 'You next, corpsman. but you kneel.'
"The wire fence and the empty faces behind it , the wooden shacks, the yellow brick building where it had all begun, Kwong's squat body and the hills and the brilliance of the snow in the sunlight began to spin around me as though my vision couldn't hold one object in place. My knees felt weak, and I felt excrement running down my buttocks. The wind spun clouds of powdered snow into the light.
"Kwong shoved me backwards into the hole, then leaned over me and pushed the gun barrel into my back. His nostrils were wide and clotted with mucus in the cols."
The novel itself takes place in the late Sixties. Hack gets a call from an old army buddy, a man who saved his life at least once in the war, Arturo Gomez, who was now involved as a labor organizer in South Texas. Art had jailed for assault in a picket line arrest. Because of the political volatility of the situation and powerful influence of wealthy farmers in the area, Art is looking at a long prison stretch. Hack agrees to help him, and soon finds himself facing much of the same ignorance, hatred, violence, and bigotry he had experienced in Korea.
This time, he has a chance at redemption.
James Lee Burke is one of the best writers of our time and is a master of the suspense. crime, and historical novel. He is best known for his many novels about Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux. His novels about various members of the Holland family take us from 1835 to today:
- Son Holland escaped from a Louisiana chain gang and fought for Texas independence, earning him a large tract of land in that state (Two for Texas, 1982)
- Sam Morgan Holland was a confederate soldier, former gunman, and a Baptist saddle preacher who was a lover of Cimarron Rose
- Hackberry Holland was a Texas Ranger and lawman who jailed John Wesley Hardin (The House of the Rising Sun, 2015)
- Ismael Holland. Hackberry's son, fought in World War I, also featured in The House of the Rising Sun
- Bessie Holland, Hackberry's daughter, accidently killed a man while protecting her father, and fled to New York (Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie, to be published June 3, 2025)
- Hackberry Holland, former Navy corpsman, lawyer for the ACLU, and a sheriff on the Texas- Mexican border (Lay Down My Sword and Shield, 1971; Rain Gods, 2009; Feast Day for Fools, 2011)
- Billy Bob Holland, former Texas ranger and lawyer (Cimarron Rose, 1997; Heartwood, 1999; Bitterroot, 2001; In the Moon of Red Ponies, 2004)
- Weldon Holland served in the Ardennes during World War II (Wayfaring Stranger, 2014)
- Aaron Holland Broussard, author (The Jealous Kind, 2016; Another Kind of Eden, 2021; Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, 2022)
I read Burke's first few books but drifted away. I'll have to look into the Holland family books now with your strong recommendation.
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